Completely Incomplete
by DarkElements10
Summary: -COMPLETE-Dougie is shocked when his father suddenly comes back into his life. Afterwards his friends notice that he's changing, and not for the better. They know that Dougie is hiding something from them. Will they find out or is it too late to save him?
1. Prologue

**Life's a Bitch and So Are You**

**Summary**** – Dougie gets the shock of his life when his father suddenly comes back into his life. Shortly afterwards his friends start to notice that he's changing, and not for the better. Will they find out his secret before it's too late?**

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_**Prologue**_

"_Now, Mister Jones, tell us one more time what you saw." Said the overweight police officer. _

"_I already told once, why do I have to tell you again?" I asked tiredly. Tom and I did not want to repeat the story all over again. I was getting too depressed to even think about it. _

"_Imagine what it is like for him." Tom agreed. That thought gave us strength. We could tell this story over and over until they had it memorized if we had to, we could do it for him. _

"_Just one more time for the record Mr. Jones, Mr. Fletcher, Mr. Judd." The man said. _

_I nodded and started the story._

"_I was in my room doing homework by my window when I heard a loud bang. Tom and Harry were hanging out and doing home work with me. I ignored the bang as Tom looked out the window, where we heard the bang from across the street at my friend's house. Tom grabbed my arm and dragged me to the window to look out it. I looked at one of the windows and I could see someone's back pressed onto the window, or at least half of the back the rest was pressed up to the wall." I explained._

_Tom took over next. "At first I couldn't tell who it was but then I recognized the person as my friend Dougie. I didn't know what was going on and I didn't know where his sister, Jazzie, was, I kept watching and I saw Dougie slide down the wall and he didn't get back up. Then I saw their father, Gary, walk up to him. At first I thought he was going to help Dougie up because he bent down, but when he came back up he was holding Dougie by his collar. I was wondering why Dougie wasn't fighting back but I didn't have time to think about that since Gary threw Dougie across the room." _

_Harry took a deep breath and continued with the story too. "That is when we ran downstairs and told my dad, who called the police. When the police got there they surrounded the house and after a few tries of getting Gary to come out they busted down the door. We snuck in with them. They all looked throughout the house, and found them in the basement. What I saw I would never forget; Dougie was on the ground hunched over holding his stomach and surrounded by his own blood, Jazzie was laying on the ground, holding her head. They had bruises, cuts and wounds all over them." _

"_We later found out that Gary had given them a sever drug over dose." Tom concluded and I nodded in agreement, still reeling from the news._

"_But he must have been acting weird while he was at school" the overweight officer said._

"_He did, but we thought that he was just being stressed out, but, yes, we did think that there was something wrong with him because they always flinched when we went to give him a high-five" I said._

"_Was he ever angry or overprotective or something?" the officer continued. _

"_Dougie, he was really secluded and hated to be alone with us, and when he was, he would always try to find a way to leave. But the only time we became alarmed was when he kept making excuses or why he was always in pain or why he had bruises" Tom sighed, sinking lower in his chair._

_I didn't blame him, we've been questioned ever since we went into the Poynter's home, and we were really tired. I just wanted to go home, knowing my friends were ok, and go to sleep._

"_All right, I have one more question to ask" the officer said._

"_What is it?" I snapped irritably. Harry kicked me in my shin, silencing me._

"_Explain everything from the beginning, like, when he started to act weird" the officer replied._

_I sighed again; it was going to be a long night…_

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**A/N: So, that's the prologue. What did you guys think, I wanted to start with a 'bang', and I thought that this was it. But I also want to know if you think that I should put my OCs in this, or just two of them, or none of them. Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy this fic.**


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter One**

Dougie sighed angrily as he crossed his arms and rested them on the kitchen table, his chin lying on his folded arms shortly afterward.

He had retreated into that room shortly after he had gotten home from school. He had had a pretty good time, the usual hanging out with his friends, Tom, Danny, and Harry; the ones that usually made him feel better after a bad day of school, which is what he usually had. They had gone over to Danny's house and were playing Xbox and practically ate all of Mrs. Jones' food, but she didn't mind, she was happy that her son was coping so well with the affair that his father had, causing him to leave them.

Dougie and Danny were probably the best friends out of all four of them; they had a lot in common, but mostly bonded over trying to comfort each other when they started to feel bad about their father's not being in their lives. Well, that's what Dougie thought.

When he got home that day, he was shocked to find his dad sitting in the living room, talking to his mother. Suddenly all the anger he had ever felt towards his dad, the anger that he had suppressed day after day as he grew older, came back with a flourish, and his mother could see it in his eyes. She quickly got up and ushered him into the kitchen, saying that he should stay there until he calmed down.

"Calm down, my ass" Dougie muttered to himself, bowing his head, surprised to find that his eyes filled up with tears. "What am I, a complete baby?" he asked himself, furiously brushing off his cheeks.

"Dougie, could you come in here please?" Sam Poynter asked her son as she walked into the kitchen. Dougie got up from his chair, pushing it back against the floor loudly, and crossed his arms across his chest, a sign that he wouldn't give up on being stubborn.

"What's he doing here, mum?" he demanded. "Why would he leave and then just come back without a word as to why he left ?"

"Dougie, calm down," Sam said as she wrapped her arms around her son in a hug. "I know, this is hard for me too. But he just came back saying that he was sorry that he left, although he has no explanation for it."

"Do you really believe that he his sorry?" Dougie asked, his voice muffled.

"I don't know for sure, but he seems to want to show that he's sorry. I think that you should go out with him tonight, for, a guys night out thing. I mean, you really haven't had much of a male influence in your life." Sam replied, holding Dougie's arms length away. Instinctively, Dougie crossed his arms tighter, a disapproving frown on his face. "I know that look."

"Then you know that I'm not going to do it." Dougie replied sharply. He looked away from his mother, knowing that if he looked right at her, he would give in too easily.

"Dougie, please, just do this for me." Sam said softly. "Think about how I feel, my husband walked out on me, and I had to take care of a teenage son and a twelve year old daughter by myself. I don't know if I should be able to trust him again, but I want to try, because I'm a nice person like that and I know that you're nice too. So, give it a try for me, please?"

Dougie looked at his mother. He really looked at her. She was young, so she was still really pretty and was pretty enough to be hit on. But in her eyes he could see the tears that had been shed and still 

wanted to be shed, the hurt, the determination, and the pride to keep going on. He knew he owed his mom that much.

"Fine"

-

**A/N: Sorry it was such a short and bad chapter. I'll update again soon.**


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**-Dougie's POV-**

"Let's get this over with" I muttered as I slammed the door to my dad's truck as hard as I could. I would have laughed if the glass shattered or if the door just fell to the ground, like they do in comedy movies and stuff. But, as always, I don't have that luck.

"I'm really happy that you decided to come out to talk with me." Dad said as he got into the driver's side and closed the door. I rolled my eyes and muttered curses under my breath, of which that if my mom heard me she would probably make me eat soap until I stopped, as I thought of different ways to kill off my dad without being an immediate suspect. "I really missed you guys you know."

"Yeah, I doubt it." I snapped and pulled my IPod out of my pocket and placed the ear buds in my ears and blasted Blink as high as it could go.

I would probably destroy my hearing later in life, but I knew how annoyed dad got when someone played music too loud. We passed Danny's house and I could see him, Tom, and Harry chasing each other around the yard with a water hose in Harry's hand. I sighed, knowing that they were going to be playing Halo for the rest of the night and probably sleep over. Note to self, ask mom if I can spend the night at Danny's house. If my luck turned any worse than it is now, my dad would probably spend the night at our house, and I didn't want to wake up to find him on our couch.

Hm, I wonder how Jazzie was taking this; I never really got the chance to ask her because almost as soon as I agreed to going out with dad, mum practically threw me out the door.

"DOUGLAS!" Dad yelled as he yanked my ear bud out of my ear.

"What?" I asked coolly, turning from the window to face him. I smirked inwardly, reveling at the fact that he had an annoyed look in his eye, from the music being played so loud and him shouting to get my attention most likely. "What do you want? And _don't_ call me Douglas."

"Where do you want to go to eat?" my dad asked in reply, gritting his teeth together.

"I don't know and I don't care." I replied. Well, actually I did. If it was a really good restaurant, I'm going to order the most expensive thing on the menu, even if I didn't like it at all. But then if we went to a McDonalds or a Burger King or something, then I would show my dad that I liked to eat a lot by buying a lot of food. I do that with my mum anyway, but he doesn't need to know that.

We went to a McDonalds and then the first thing that annoyed me happened there. My dad ordered for me, and he ordered me one of those orange-chicken salad things. I hate eating salads, it doesn't fill me up and I starve for the rest of dinner.

"Aren't you hungry?" my dad asked as I angrily stabbed the lettuce that was in my bowl. I had eaten the chicken as soon as I had opened the package, and was now trying not to let him know that my stomach was growling.

"No!" I snapped in reply and continued stabbing my lettuce, hoping that it would be like a voodoo doll of him and he would die…die….die!

"Son, I wanted to talk-" he started but all the anger that was inside me suddenly came bubbling out.

"About what?!" I shouted, not caring that everybody had turned and stared at the two of us. "About the fact that you left us so mum had to take care of us all by herself? The fact that you abandoned us for your own selfish needs? The fact that you-"

"Stop shouting, this isn't _everyone's_ business." Dad said, starting to glare at me.

"You're starting to get mad, huh?" I asked, getting out of the booth and throwing me soda to the ground, not caring that the brown liquid inside spilled all over my shoes. "How mad do you think mum was when she realized that you were gone?" I laughed bitterly. "Oh wait, she was more sad, no, devastated, then she was mad."

"_Sit down!_" Dad cried, grabbing my wrist and gripping it tightly. I gasped in pain as he tightened his grip on my hand. "You will _not_ make a spectacle out of me or our family's problem like this."

"Let me go!" I hissed back, pulling my arm out of his grasp. I winced when I tried to turn my arm over, but pain shot up my hand. Glaring at dad, I walked out of the McDonalds and put my cell phone to my ear.

"Hello?" I heard Tom ask.

"Hey Tom, can you come pick me up, my mum says that I can stay over at Dan's house, but she can't take me." I said quickly, looking into the window and watching my dad clean up the soda that was spilled.

"Sure, where are you?"

"At the McDonalds" I replied and saw dad look p and glare back at me. "Please hurry."

**A/N: Chapters will get longer.**


	4. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

"Hey, thanks for picking me up, dude." I sighed as I rested my forehead against the cool passenger side window.

"It's no problem; I needed to get away from Danny for a little bit anyway." Tom replied as he looked both ways out of the front window. "He was starting to sing Springsteen's greatest hits when I left to come get you."

Despite how pissed off I was, I couldn't help but laugh, that was something that Danny would do just to annoy us, he would purposely sing badly too. I started to laugh harder when I imagined Danny doing just that. Our of him, Tom, and Harry, I would say that Danny is my best friend, I mean we get along so well. We like the same type of music, we have the same sense of humor (that's pretty much making fun of Tom as much as possible) and we both have fathers that have walked out on us, so we have the in common.

"Dougs, are you ok?" Tom asked after I had stopped laughing, pausing to catch my breath. "If you're starting to go crazy, let me know and I'll check you into a psyche ward." He gave a teasing smile, showing me that he was just making a joke.

It was kind of a lame one, but it made me feel better. I knew that I had to tell the others about my dad being back, but I'm not sure how they would react to it.

Too bad one of them weren't in my place and I was in theirs.

Life would be so much easier.

* * *

"Hey, pass the whipped cream please" I said through a mouthful of ice cream. We were all sitting in Danny's kitchen, taking a break from playing Halo. It was my suggestion to have the ice cream, knowing it would make us completely hyper so the next few rounds would be fun, that and it was the fact that I knew it would piss my dad off.

Oops, that reminded me that I hadn't called my mum.

"Here you go." Harry said and passed me the can of whipped cream.

"I'll be right back," I said, pushing back my chair with a loud scraping sound and getting to my feet. Absentmindedly, I picked up the can of whipped cream in my other hand as I lifted my fell phone to my ear and walked out of the kitchen, so no one would hear my conversation.

I had told Tom that I had called my mum and said that it was ok for me to come over, I didn't know if he believed me or not, because when he pulled up at the restaurant, I ducked low in my seat as we passed my dad. I know that Tom didn't recognize my dad, having only met him once before, and that was two years ago, but I knew that he knew that I was hiding something. That was something that you couldn't do whenever Tom was around, he could just sit there, patiently, watching you, and then you would crack and have to tell him everything.

I waited for someone to pick up the phone at home, silently tightening and releasing my grip on the can of whipped cream that was in my hand.

"Hello?" I heard Jazzie ask as she answered the phone. I frowned, realizing that she didn't sound as happy as she usually did.

"Hey Jazz, what's wrong?" I asked.

"I'm just…mad at daddy." Jazzie replied in a quiet tone. "I mean, why would he just suddenly want to come back into our lives after staying away so long without a phone call." My heart sank when she started to cry. I couldn't stand it when my sister cried, especially if I was the one that mad her upset. But since it was dad that was making her upset, it made me even more pissed off. "He missed Christmases, Birthdays, Mother's Day, Valentine's Day, Father's Day, all of it! I'm just sick of this!"

"It's ok, Jazz, things will get better soon." I said reassuringly, although I didn't believe myself. "Listen, tell mum that I'm spending the night at Danny's, and I'll see you tomorrow. We can spend the whole day together, just the two of us, or the three of us if you want to include mum."

"Thanks Dougie, that helps a lot." Jazzie said quietly. "I love you."

"Love you too," I replied with a smile. "Bye."

I hung up my cell phone and dropped it into my cargo pockets before walking back into the kitchen. I stopped short when I saw the looks on Danny's, Tom's, and Harry's faces. It looked like they were trying really hard not to laugh and I narrowed my eyes, knowing that something was up.

I sat down in my chair and looked down at the empty spot on the table.

Yes, I said empty spot.

The empty spot where my ice cream was.

Yep, I said _was._

As in, it's not there anymore.

As in someone from Narnia came out of Danny's closet and took my ice cream and brought it back with him to eat it himself. Nah, I'm joking. But I knew from the guilty looks in Tom's, Harry's, and Danny's eyes, that they had eaten my ice cream. It also helped, because I saw that their bowls were still pretty full, and that they had chocolate syrup around their mouths, and their ice cream was chocolate free.

"Ok, who's idea was it?" I asked, slowly taking off the cap to the can of whipped cream.

"It was Danny's!" Tom and Harry cried in unison, pointing to the Bolton boy, whose eyes widened like he was a deer caught in headlights.

"Bad idea, dude." I grinned and stood up, shaking the can of whipped cream in my hand. I pointed it at Danny's face.

You can probably guess what happened next…

I'm glad I have such great friends…


	5. Chapter 4

**A/N: I decided that I'm going to put only Riley in this story as Dougie's romance, but if you want to read a story without the DarkElements, and if you like slash, then check out my story 'I Predict a Riot'. Sorry this is a short chapter, I'm getting back into updating my stories, so they chapters will be getting longer as time goes on.**

**

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****Chapter Four**

"Bye guys, I'll see you later!" I called as I put my bag into the back of my mum's car. Unfortunately, I was the first one to leave Danny's house, usually I was the last one. Danny and I always had a lot of fun together, messing with his sister until she ran to their mother, yelling for us to stop. It's really fun and entertaining. But the fact that my mum picked me up first made me realize that she had something serious to talk about.

"Bye Dougie!" Danny shouted back, leaning out his bedroom window. That probably wasn't a good idea; he'll have neighbors complaining about the noise for hours.

Laughing to myself, I got into the car and waited for mum to speak as we drove back to our house. She opened and closed her mouth a few times, trying to get the words out, and I waited patiently.

"So, last night," she started and I winced at the thought of leaving my dad in the restaurant to face the wrath of the manager. He deserved it though.

"What about last night?" I grunted as I brought my knees up to my chest and placed my feet on the dashboard. I refused to look at mum, because I knew that something was going to be said that one of us didn't like, probably me, and if it was something that mum didn't like, I didn't want to see the disappointed look on her face.

"Well, your father came over and we had a nice long talk," Mum hesitated as she took a deep breath. As she reached her hand up to her hair to brush it out of her face, I saw that it was shaking. Mum must be really worried because I don't think I have ever seen her shake so badly. Well, except the time when Jazzie had pneumonia and we weren't sure if she was going to be ok. Mum was _really_ a wreck then. "We talked about the fight and the break up and stuff and he apologized."

"So…" I trailed off, waiting for mum to tell me what she was going to say.

"He wants to be a part of our lives again," Mum said quietly. "He's not going to live in the same house with us, but we're going to try and get everything back to normal again. We both realized that our divorce made us both unhappy, it made you guys unhappy too. So, we're going to try again."

I stayed silent.

I couldn't believe this.

_Dad_ disappears. _Dad_ walks out on us. _Dad_ makes mom and Jazzie cry._ Dad_ ruins all of our lives and mum goes and tries to make him come back to our family so everything will be normal again. _Normal_? When was anything about this normal? It doesn't make any sense. But, really, it's not my choice. Mum wants to be happy again, so I should let her try to be happy.

"Dougie, what do you think about this?" Mum asks and by the tone of her voice I can tell it wasn't the first time she's asked me.

I sighed and bit my lower lip as I looked down at my lap. I saw a loose thread on my shirt and wrapped my finger around it, watching as the tip turned purple and started to throb. I bent my finger and ripped the thread off of my shirt. Letting out another sigh I dropped the string.

"I think it's fine, mum." I muttered to myself.

* * *

I sat on the steps that led up to my bedroom and watched, well, glared, as Mum and Dad walked back and forth, carrying boxes in and out of the house. Dad had been around for a month, and apparently mum had forgiven him, because he was now moving in. I can tell you that I didn't like the idea, and Jazzie didn't like the idea, she didn't stay at the house much, she was either out with friends, or she was doing errands for mum. Anything so she wouldn't be around dad.

Me, I stayed busy with school.

No, I don't actually do school work, but the guys and I are trying to get a band together to play at the annual talent show that's coming up soon.

"Dougie, aren't you going to help?" Mum asked in a way that told me that she didn't like me just sitting on the steps, staring at the two of them. Giving a knowing smirk, I leaned back on my elbows and looked up at the ceiling, ignoring the impatient sigh that escaped mum's lips. "Get him to help would you?" she asked Dad as he walked into the house. "You know how stubborn he can get."

"Yeah, I do remember that." Dad chuckled in reply as he set a box on the floor. I slowly lowered my head and stared at Dad, who was staring back at me. He waited until mum left the room before speaking. "Why don't you help me unpack the truck son?" he asked in a quiet tone.

I snorted.

_Son_.

Yeah, I have _definitely_ not heard that word for a while.

Dad must've not liked my snort because his face hardened and he gritted his teeth. I could see the vein in his jaw starting to twitch. He looked over at the doorway to the living room and waited until Mum had left through the front door to get more stuff before saying anything else.

"I didn't know that I had raised such an ungrateful son." He growled. I raised an eyebrow and pointed to myself.

"_I'm_ ungrateful? Bloody hell-"

"Don't curse!" Dad swiftly cut me off. I ignored him.

"Blood hell," I repeated with a sneer. "I'm not the one that was such a coward about a divorce that he left his son, daughter, and well, ex-wife, having to start all over again. I worked hard to make sure that mum and Jazzie were happy. _I'm_ not the ungrateful one."

I shouldn't have said that.

I know that now, I shouldn't have said anything that I did.

As soon as the words left my mouth, Dad's hand came out of nowhere and connected, white-hot, against my cheek. I didn't cry out in pain. I barely even registered the pain; I didn't even utter a sound. It was just the fact that my dad _hit me_ that shocked me. That made me mute.

I stood up and glared at my dad, who countered my glare with one of his own, and I saw in that look that he was seriously disgusted with me. I heard and gasp and turned my head, to see mum staring at the red spot that was probably on my cheek.

My dad had hit me hard.

"What happened?" Mum asked as she rushed over to me and checked my cheek, turning my head back and forth as if she could tell from that what had happened to my cheek. I quickly looked over at my dad and saw from the look on his face that he didn't want me to tell mum what really happened. The look in his eye was dangerous, as if he wasn't afraid to do anything else to make sure that I stayed quiet.

"Dougie just turned his head and hit it against the banister." Dad said and raised his eyebrows at me, waiting to agree.

"Whatever." I muttered and pushed away from my mum and ran out the front door.

"What's wrong with him?" I heard my mum ask as I ran down the driveway.

"I don't know, but I'll talk to him later if you want me to." I heard my dad reply.

I squeezed my eyes shut and covered my ears with my hands as I continued to run. I didn't want to hear his voice. I couldn't stand hearing his voice. It wasn't fair, everything was going right up until my dad came back. Why did he have to come back? Why did he have to make everything change? Why did he-

I ran into something and fell onto my back, smacking my head against the ground.

Letting out a low moan, everything turned black.


	6. Chapter 5

**A/N: I know it's been a long time since I've updated, but it's only because I've been studying for exams. But don't worry, exams will be over soon and I'll be on break, so I'll be able to update more. This chapter is short too, it's a filler chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter Five**

"Dude….dude…wake up, you're not dead!"

Dougie cried out as there was a sharp sting to his right arm and his eyes flew open, afraid that it was his dad that was standing over him. But then he remembered that his dad would never call him 'dude'…and he didn't have a feminine voice, unless he was transgendered and he didn't know it.

Dougie cautiously opened his eyes and saw a girl his age standing over him. She had an impatient look on her face as she stood up and crossed her arms over her chest. Dougie sat up and rubbed the back of his head, where it connected with the cement with a sharp thwack when he hit the ground.

"Ow, did I run into you?" he asked as he rubbed his head and looked up at the girl. She blew a stand of black/red hair out of her blue eyes and raised an eyebrow.

"No, you ran into a freight train!" she snapped in reply, Dougie could hear the sarcasm in his voice and didn't say anything as he got to his feet, brushing off his pants. "What were you running for anyway, you looked kind of scared."

"Ha, what would I possibly be scared of?" Dougie laughed as he looked up at the girl. She raised an eyebrow as a smirk tugged at her lips.

"I don't know, you're the one that was running as if something was chasing you." She said her smirk faded instantly. "And by the way you were running I would say you were either afraid, or you're trying out for a rugby team because you practically tackled me to the ground. It was then that Dougie noticed the heavy accent in her voice.

"Where are you from?" he asked, changing the subject. He didn't like to be called afraid, especially when he was scared of something. It was just male pride, they didn't like being called out on anything that would make them to be less of a man, and they would never admit it if it were true. "You're definitely not from around here with that accent."

"Obviously."

"So where are you from?"

"Australia," the girl replied after a minute of silence and then made a face. "Then my dad got a new job and we moved here. Can't say that I'm happy about that though."

"London is a great place to live." Dougie protested in defense of where he lived all of his life.

"Not when it rains" Riley replied and pulled up the hood on her shirt as a light rain began to fall. Dougie cursed himself as he felt his shirt start to stick to his body as it began to rain harder. He looked over at the girl, who seemed to be laughing at him with his eyes. "Although I figured that you'd be able to tell when it rains, considering that you've always lived here, but I guess it doesn't really bother you."

"Guess not." Dougie muttered, wiping water off of his face.

"Well, I have to go." The girl stepped around Dougie and continued down the sidewalk.

"I'm Dougie, by the way, nice to meet you!" he said loudly, sarcastically, as he started to walk down the street to Danny's house. Surely Tom and Harry would be there too and he would be able to get his mind taken off of his dad, the sting in his cheek, and the small bit of fear left in his heart.

He barely heard, "I'm Riley, nice to meet you too!", over the clap of thunder.

Barely.

But he heard it.


	7. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

The weekend went by too quickly, at one moment I was at Danny's house, hanging out and playing the bass guitar to a song that Tom, Danny, and a friend of ours, James, wrote called 'Five Colours in Her Hair' and the next thing I know, Jazzie is waking me up for school. The weekends sure do go by fast.

"Dougie, get up." Jazzie practically sang into my ear. I groaned and opened an eye to see her standing above me, a small smile on her face. "Are you up yet? Or do I have to get a hose?"

"Bugger off, Jazzie." I grumbled in reply, pulling my blankets over my head. Jazzie pulled them back down and I pulled it back up and she pulled it back down. "Jazzie, knock it off!" I cried, sitting up and glaring at her. My eyes narrowed slightly when I saw that Jazzie had a weird look flash through her eyes. I couldn't be sure, but it looked like fear. I sat up and turned my body towards hers. "What is it?" I asked in concern.

"Nothing, dad just wants you get ready for school so he can drive us there, mum had to go to work early." Jazzie replied and shrugged. "I don't know why, but knowing mum to go in early, it must be important."

"That's not what's bothering you, is it?" I asked, rubbing an arm, as I stared hard at my sister. She avoided my gaze and then glared at me.

"There's nothing bothering me, god, you can be an annoying brother!" Jazzie replied and stormed out of the room. I shrugged and got dressed to go to school, in that annoying school uniform, and went downstairs to eat breakfast.

"Cutting it kind of close, huh?" Dad asked as I walked by him to get to the cabinet that held the cereal. I grunted in reply and finished making my bowl of cereal, leaning against the counter as I shoveled it into my mouth as fast as I could. "I would like to have an answer instead of a grunt." He added pointedly. I stopped eating, my mouth full, and looked at him. He was looking back at me with a serious expression on his face.

"I said whatever." I replied after a few seconds of silence and continued eating.

Dad nodded and gave a contended sigh as he got up from the table and folded the newspaper. He picked up his plate and set into the sink beside me. I turned my body away from him, distinctly remembering the fact that he had slapped me only a few days ago. Dad sighed again and leaned against the sink, crossing his arms over his chest. He didn't seem to want to say anything, so I ate faster and as soon as I was done, I practically threw my bowl into the sink and started out of the room.

"Dougie!"

My name caused me to freeze and turn around.

Dad was staring at me.

It was unnerving to see him staring at me with his cold grey eyes, the same eyes that watched my mum's life fall apart without doing anything to change it once. The same eyes that stared when I put my mum's and my sister's happiness before mine.

"What?" I asked in a low voice, trying not to look at him, although I could feel his eyes boring into mine.

"I'm sorry about what I did over the weekend." Dad said which shocked me into looking at him. He _was_ staring right at me and he _did_ look really sorry. "I let my anger get the best of me, and…I shouldn't have hit you, but you also could have tried and helped us move everything instead of just sitting there and pissing me off."

I hung my head. I guess I _did_ make him feel bad, so his hitting me was my own fault.

Right.

It was.

"I'm sorry too." I muttered the words thick on my throat. Dad gave a small smile and walked towards me. "But _don't_ think that I'm forgiving you for walking out on us!" I added, glaring up at him. He laughed.

"I didn't think I would be able to win you over that fast." He replied and picked up the car keys that were on the table. "Jasmine, are you ready to go?" he called.

"Yeah dad!" Jazzie called back. I raised an eyebrow.

'_Does_ _she forgive him_?' I asked myself and then shook my head. Mum may have been able to forgive him, but I know that Jazzie and I definitely aren't going to be able to be won over that easily. I followed dad out of the kitchen and grabbed my skateboard on the way out the door. Jazzie and I put our stuff into the trunk of Dad's car, which I'm surprised fit. Along with my skateboard were my backpack, and my bass guitar. And Jazzie had her backpack and her large sports bag in there. The trunk was large so it was able to carry all of it. I looked at the car as I walked around it to the passenger seat. '_Dad really has done himself good._' I thought to myself bitterly and got into the car.

* * *

School.

I hate school.

Don't get me wrong, I like to learn. I know, shocker, Dougie Poynter likes to learn. But it's the fact that they have to give us tests and quizzes about the things that we learn that I don't like. If I understand what's going on in class, why should I do the homework and why should I do any of the tests and quizzes they give us? The answer to that: no fucking idea. So I hardly do my homework, which my mum is annoyed of, and just scrape by on tests.

If that proved that I didn't like school, I don't know what else would. I just want to get out of here as soon as possible. If there was some kind of gas leak that blew up the school, or a water main pipe broke and the school flooded, I wouldn't be complaining.

When I got to school, I went straight to the band room to play a little bit of my bass guitar. It was also the place that Danny, Tom, Harry, and I would meet up before school if we had anything to talk about. Or if we just wanted to play with each other, you know, to practice for the talent show, not what you pervs were thinking.

I stopped short almost as soon as I walked into the room. Cocking my head to the side, I watched as a girl jumped around the room, her fingers flying over the fret board of the guitar that was in her hands. I chuckled to myself and waited until she struck her last chord before starting to clap enthusiastically, causing the girl to spin around. I instantly recognized her as Riley, the girl I met the last weekend.

"Bravo, bravo, aww, don't tell me that you're stopping now. It was just getting good." I said teasingly.

"What do you want?" Riley asked as she set her guitar down on the ground and unplugged it from the amp. She stood up and pulled down the hem of her skirt. "Are you following me or something?"

"Uh, no, I just came in here to meet some friends of mine." I replied as I motioned to my bass guitar. "I didn't know that you came to this school, I haven't seen you around."

"That's because this is my first day…which was kind of implied when I said that I just moved here." Riley replied with a raised eyebrow as if she were confused about something. "But then again," she cocked her head to the side, just like I had a few moments ago. "I don't tag you to be the brightest bulb in the lamp. Later." She picked up her guitar and left the room, just as Tom, Danny, and Harry walked into the band room.

"Hey guys." I greeted them as I plugged my bass guitar into an amp.

"Hey Dougie," Tom smiled in reply as he walked over to me, dragging his guitar behind him. "How was the rest of your weekend? You came over to Danny's house looking pretty mad, you ok now?"

"I reckon so." I shrugged in reply. "And the rest of my weekend was fine. But, I have something to tell you guys."

"What, is that bird your girlfriend?" Danny interrupted a large grin on his face. I looked over at Harry, who nodded at me and then smacked Danny on the back of the head.

"There goes the last of his brain cells!" Tom declared, between his laughter.

"Shocker" I replied teasingly as I rolled my eyes and laughed a little. "No, what I want to tell you guys is that…my dad is back." I coughed and avoided my friends' gazes. Tom, just like I suspected, was the first one to speak.

"I'm sorry, did you say that your dad is back?" he asked and I nodded in reply. "Uh, I'm not really sure what to say, Dougie."

"I do," Danny said and I looked over at him. Instead of the usually happy look on his face, he had a scowl and a darker look in his eyes. It didn't surprise me. Like my father, his left him when he and his sister, Vicky, were really young and he had never gotten over it. "Don't forgive him!"

"Now, Danny, I think that's a bit harsh." Harry said gently. Danny shot his glare over to Harry, who looked back at him calmly."I think that he should give his dad a chance, I mean, he came back to try and make things right, right? I think that you should give him a chance."

"I think that you should kick his ass out of your house!" Danny declared.

"What do you think, Tom?" I asked him quietly, looking up from the strings on my bass guitar, which had suddenly become really interesting. Tom gave a small sigh and an apologetic look.

"I think that this decision is up to you." He replied. I blew air out of my mouth in annoyance, blowing my hair out of my face in the process.

This is very annoying.

"Whatever," I replied, quickly trying to change the subject. "Have you guys gotten the lyrics written out to 5 colours yet?"

"Uh, yeah, here you go" Tom said and pulled a sheet of paper out of his backpack and walked towards me to give it to me, but tripped over a chair on the way and knocked into me, knocking me off my feet and onto the ground. I let out a cry when my bass guitar landed on my stomach, knocking the wind out of me.

"Dougie, are you ok?" Danny asked between his laughter. Harry covered his mouth with his hand, but from where I was lying, I could see him close his eyes, so I knew that he was laughing.

"I'm sorry, dude, are you ok?" Tom asked, looking concerned, like he always did.

I liked that the most about Tom, he always worried about his friends. The one thing that I hated about him was the fact that he tried to be perfect, especially when we we're practicing a song, if we start goofing off he would get all mean and PMSy.

That's not fun.

I couldn't help but laugh as I got to my feet. When he saw me laughing, Tom started to laugh too and soon the four of us were rolling around in hysterics. What can I saw, Danny, Harry, and Tom were the best friends I could ever want or have. They always made things better.

If only I knew that they wouldn't be able to help me when things started to go out of control.


	8. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

"How was school today?" Mum asked as soon as Jazzie and I got home and got changed out of our school uniforms. We were in the kitchen, with dad, doing our homework and mum had just come in from work, and the grocery store from the look of it. I looked at her and saw that she had a lot of grocery bags that were in her hands, getting up, I walked over to her and took them out of her arms for her, wondering why dad hadn't even looked up when she had gotten home.

"It was cool, mum." Jazzie cried enthusiastically. I couldn't help but roll my eyes, she always liked school, even if something bad had happened, she could find a way to be optimistic and enjoy the school day. It annoyed me really. "We're going over natural disasters in science. It's really cool."

"_You're_ a natural disaster!" I shot back and smirked at Jazzie, who stuck her tongue out in reply and rolled her eyes. She knew that I didn't mean it.

"Apologize to your sister, Dougie." Dad said. I raised an eyebrow as I turned to him and saw that he was staring back at me, a serious expression on his face. Mum just looked at him and then at me, a confused look on her face. "You heard me, apologize to Jasmine."

"Sorry Jazzie." I muttered and went back to putting up the groceries.

"Gary, he was just joking." Mum said as she placed a hand on dad's shoulder gently. Swiftly, he got up, roughly wrenching his arm out of mum's grasp.

"I don't care!" he snapped and glared at me. "He needs to show women respect." With that he turned and stormed from the room. I looked over at Jazzie and she shrugged in reply. I didn't really expect her to understand it either.

"Sorry Jazz." I muttered.

"Don't worry about him, Dougie, he's just a little stressed out with trying to find another job." Mum sighed as she walked over to the refrigerator and took a coupon off of the door. "Jazzie, are you ready to go?"

"Where are you going?" I asked, looking up at her, eyebrows furrowed together. "Can I go too?"

"I don't know Dougie," Jazzie grinned in reply as she skipped over to my side and rested her chin on my shoulder and smiled up at me. "Do you want to go to the beauty salon? I think it would do you some good if you got your eyelashes trimmed."

Mum laughed and I laughed sarcastically, rolling my eyes. I kissed Jazzie on the forehead and waited until they had left before tossing down the food and heading to the refrigerator. Pulling open the freezer, I pulled out a bag of frozen flies and headed to my bedroom. Before you ask, no I am _not_ going to eat them. No, they're for my lizards.

I entered my bedroom and stopped short when I saw my dad in there, peering into one of my lizard cages. "Dad, what are you doing?"

"I could ask you the same thing." Dad snarled in reply as he looked up from the lizards and then at me, the look on his face caused me to flinch and take a step back.

Ok, I was seriously confused. What could I have possibly done to make him so pissed off at me? I mean he didn't even have a right to barge into _my_ room and back into _my_ life and tell me how he was going to run things. Oh no, that's not how this was going to go down.

That's what I wanted to say, but I didn't. Oh boy did I want to say it, but I knew from the dangerous look in dad's eye that there wouldn't be a good thing if I opened my mouth. So I just tightened my grip on the bag of flies and swallowed thickly.

"What's with these faggoty lizards?" dad asked as she smacked the palm of his hand against one of the cages. It was Zukie's cage, when dad hit the side; Zukie made a loud squeaky sound and dove behind the log that was in it.

"Don't scare him dad!" I cried, finally finding my voice. That was probably the wrong time to open my mouth. Dad turned and glared at me and before I could do anything else, he surged forward and grasped his hand around my neck. I coughed and spluttered as he tightened his grip and I could feel my airways getting cut off.

Let me tell you, that's the most scary thing that you can ever experience. Let me draw a picture for you. Imagine your dad looking at you with utter disgust and feeling him squeeze his hand into a fist, purposely trying to cut off your airway. The edges of your vision start to go black, your heart beats faster and faster, knowing that you're not getting any air.

You're just plain sacred.

I was scared.

Finally, dad relaxed his grip and I sank to my knees, gasping for air, coughing and rubbing my throat. Still glaring, Dad grabbed me by the hair and yanked my head back, causing me to cry out in pain as I had to stare in to dad's face. A smirk slid onto his lips as he opened the bag of flies with his free hand and grabbed a handful of it. My eyes widened in horror as he moved his hand closer to my face.

"Open your mouth!" he hissed. I slammed my lips shut and dad let go of my hair and tried to force my jaws open. I screwed my eyes shut and thrashed my head back and forth. A sudden stinging blow to my stomach caused me to shout in pain, opening my mouth.

My dad seized the opportunity and shoved the handful of flies into my mouth and held my mouth shut. It was probably the worst thing that I had ever tasted and I wanted to get rid of it. I tried to spit it out, but my dad held my mouth and covered my nose, hissing to me that I had to swallow it.

"If you're going to feed your lizards that crap, you're going to have to eat it too." He hissed and held his hands over my face harder. I couldn't breathe, so I didn't have a choice but to do what he told me to.

I threw up almost immediately, barely making it to the rubbish bin that was in the corner of my room. Dad chuckled and stepped over me to leave the room.

"Clean this shit up and then come down to make dinner." He muttered and left the room. I continued to spit into my rubbish bin and when my cell phone started to ring, it startled me to bad I fell back onto my ass, breathing heavily.

I look over at it and see that it was about to fall off of my desk. Breathing heavily, and still trying to get the taste out of my mouth, I shakily reached out a hand to my phone and picked it up. It continued to ring and vibrate in my hand as I stared at the caller ID.

It was Tom.

Still breathing heavily I flipped it open and put it up to my ear. "Hello?" I asked, swallowing thickly.

"Hey Dougs, its Tom." He greeted cheerfully. I tried not to let him hear my heavy breathing. I looked over at the door to my bedroom and crossed the room, closing it and leaning against the door. "Dougie? You there?"

"Yeah, I'm here, what's up?" I asked, sliding down the door until I was sitting on the floor.

"We're still working on the song…five colours." Tom replied and I couldn't help but smile a little bit as the tune to the song filled my head. "But it sounds like crap because we don't have our bass player there. Can you come to my house?"

"Uh," I hesitated, not sure if I should go considering I had to make dinner for dad. That's no problem, I could make dinner for dad and then go off and hang out with my friends. "Yeah, sure, I just have to make some dinner first and then I'll meet you guys over there."

"Ok, cool, see you then." Tom replied and hung up. I closed my phone and shoved it into my pants pocket before grabbing my bass guitar and walking over to the window and pulling it open.

Dad could make his own damn dinner, besides; I didn't want to see him right now.

I stood on the roof of my house and looked for the easiest way down, and so I wouldn't break my bass guitar. It's the only one I have right now and I wasn't in the mood to go buy another one. The sound of someone walking across gravel caught my attention.

"Hasn't anyone ever told you suicide is never the answer?" a familiar voice asked. Looking closer I saw that it was Riley who was looking up at me. She motioned to my guitar and held out her arms. Shrugging, I dropped it over the side and she caught it.

I bent down, bracing myself with my hands and my feet and slid down the slanted room until I reached the tree that was by the house. Balancing myself, I jumped into the tree and climbed down, dropping to my feet by Riley and brushing off my hands.

"What, are you stalking me or something?" I asked, taking my bass guitar from her and slinging it over my shoulder. "First when I'm going to a friends' house, then at school, and now when I'm going to another friend's house. I know I'm irresistible, but this is ridiculous."

Riley shoved her hands into the front pocket of her hoodie and raised her eyebrows, smirking. "Nah, I just live over there," she nodded back towards the end of the street. "I was taking a walk and saw you about to jump off of your roof."

"I don't believe in suicide." I replied rubbing my nose and looking over at her. "If I ever wanted to die, I would rather have that be when I'm old and wrinkly." Not the way my dad almost tried to kill me just now. I started to walk across the lawn but then stopped and looked back at Riley. "You doing anything right now?"

"No, not really." She replied and walked back over to me. "Why?" she asked, flicking her head so her hair moved out of her face.

I couldn't help but grin. "D'you want to see a band practice?"


	9. Chapter 8

**The chapters to this story are going to range from short ones to long ones; I decided to do this depending on what the chapter is about. So ,I just wanted you guys to know that. Oh and this chapter isn't in anyone's point of view.**

**Chapter Eight**

"So, what's your band's name?" Riley asked as she and I walked towards Tom's house. I grunted in frustration as the strap to the case for my bass guitar dug into my shoulder and dropped it onto the ground and started to drag it behind me. "You know that's not good for your guitar, right?"

"I don't care, I have a lot more." I replied and brushed my hair out of my face. "Oh, our band name is McFly. We do some covers, but mostly write our own songs."

"That's a very…unique name." Riley stated as she pulled her hair out of her face. "How'd you get it?"

"You can blame Tom for that," I replied, rolling my eyes at the thought. "He is _obsessed _with Star Wars, Harry Potter, _and_ Back to the Future." I couldn't help but smile. It was funny to see how pissed off he got whenever one of us would, jokingly, diss the movies. He would go on a twenty minute rant about how great the movies are and that they're classic. "That's where our band name is from, Back to the Future, because the main character's name is Marty McFly."

"I've heard of the movie, I've seen it once, I didn't like it." Riley replied, coughing a little bit. I looked over at her and saw that she was having a little trouble breathing. "Then again, that's probably only because I hadn't seen it until like a week ago."

"That'll do it for you," I replied with a small chuckle and looked up to see that we had arrived. "Over here," I said and motioned towards the house and started up the driveway. Reaching the front door, I pulled it open and stepped inside, holding it open so Riley could come in.

"You don't knock?" Riley asked as she raised an eyebrow. "You just walk right in to each other's houses?"

"Well, they don't do that at my house because they know that my dad doesn't like that." I replied with a shrug and took off my coat, hanging it on the coat hook by the door. "But yeah, we pretty much do that because we're, like, all family to each other. It's a scary thought."

"Seems like it." Riley cracked in reply and gave a small smile. I noticed that she still had her jacket on and I held my hand out to take it. She took a step back. "No, I'm still kind of cold."

"Suit yourself." I shrugged in reply and walked towards the basement, yelling out a 'hi' to Tom's family, which consisted of his sister, Carrie, and his mum and dad. That reminded me, I had to call mum and tell her where I am. I bounded down into the basement and immediately stopped and stared when I saw that Danny was standing behind the pool table with his shirt rolled up and Tom and Harry were taking turns slamming ping-pong balls into his back. "Oy! What are you doing?" I called loudly, dropping my bass guitar to the ground and walking over to them.

"Ah, we were just trying to pass some time." Tom replied, still laughing as he looked at the welt that he had just smashed in-between Danny's shoulder blades.

"And guess what, it's your turn." Harry said and picked up an extra ball and smashed it towards Dougie as hard as he could. It missed Dougie and hit Riley in the left arm, which was when Harry, Tom, and Danny noticed that she was there. "Ooh, I'm sorry, I didn't see you there."

"It's ok, mate, it didn't hurt." Riley replied and stiffly bent down to grab the ball with her right hand. "Here" she tossed it back to him and let out a heavy sigh.

"Don't mind my _retarded_ friend over there," Dougie apologized with a small eye roll. "That's Tom, Danny, and the guy that hit you is Harry." Tom, Harry, and Danny all smiled and waved warmly. He motioned to Riley. "Guys this is my…uh, this is Riley, she lives down the street from me, and she moved here recently from Australia."

"Australia, huh?" Tom asked as he ran his fingers through his hair. "What's it like? I always wanted to go there."

"It's really nice," Riley replied as a sad look crossed her face. "It's always warm, you can surf a lot, everybody is so nice to each other. Unfortunately my dad got a new job so I moved here."

"I hope you don't mind all the rain and snow, because you get a lot of it here." Harry chuckled a little bit.

"I already had a experience with the rain, but the snow I have never actually seen, so that would be cool."

"You've never seen snow?" Danny asked in shock. "How's that possible.

"I lived in Sydney, Australia. I was born in Melbourne. I didn't go to the mountains a lot so I was never able to actually see the snow fall." Riley suddenly looked uncomfortable. "Look, I, hope you don't mind that I'm here, Dougie said it was ok, I can leave if-"

"No, no, no, it's _perfectly_ ok that you're here!" Danny said quickly and moved towards her. He started to put his arm around her shoulders and she flinched and took a step back.

"Sorry, I don't' like it when people touch me, kind of an OCD thing I guess." She flashed a quick smile but it faded instantly.

"Oh, ok," Danny replied happily. "You can go sit on the couch over there and let us know what you think about the song."

"No problem." Riley replied and sat down on the couch, pulling her jacket tighter around her. Dougie saw her shiver slightly but didn't say anything as he started to set up his guitar. Unfortunately, Tom noticed.

"Are you cold?" he asked, raising his eyebrows.

"No, no, I'm kind of warm actually." Riley replied quickly.

"Well, let me take your coat." Tom offered, holding out his hand. Riley took a step back, her eyes widened a little bit. "Really, let me take it." Riley hesitated for a second and then took off her jacket.

"Whoah!" Danny blurted as soon as he saw the large bruise on Riley's arm.

"There's no way that that ping-pong ball did that!" Harry declared and moved Tom and Danny aside to see it.

"Of course it can, mate," Dougie added as he tilted his head to the side and looked at the bruise. "The shape of the ball is in the middle of it." He winced and looked away. There was a large black and blue bruise around her arm and indeed there was a print of the ping-pong ball in her arm.

"Wow, I'm really sorry about that." Harry said, rubbing the back of his head.

"It's ok, really it is," Riley grabbed her jacket from Tom's hand and started to back away. "I…I forgot, I was going to meet someone, I have to go now. Like, right now."

"Wait, are you ok?" Tom asked in concern.

"I'm fine, I just really have to go." Riley replied and gave a quick wave before hurrying up the stairs of the basement.

"Way to go, Dougs, you sure know how to pick em'." Danny laughed.

"Shut up!" Dougie snapped in reply.

* * *

**Oh, I have a new poll on my profile. Check it out please.**


	10. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

"Hey guys, I've got to get home." I called as I started to put my bass guitar away. We had been able to write two more songs while we were there, one I wrote myself. I wouldn't say that it was that good, but it's decent. I'm not much of a songwriter as it is.

"So soon?" Tom asked, not bothering to look up from the TV where he, Danny, and Harry were playing Halo on the xbox. "What's the rush?"

"My dad wants me home."

That was true. I checked my phone a couple of minutes ago and saw that I had over twenty text messages that I had missed from my dad. Let me tell you, he was not happy that I had left the house. I didn't think that he would be.

"I haveta go too," Danny said, looking at his watch. "Mum wanted me back early enough so that she and Vicky can go out tonight. I think they're meeting your mum and sister while they're out, Dougs."

"It wouldn't surprise me." I said with a shrug as I lifted my bag and slung it over my shoulder. "Let's go."

"Alright, see ya tomorrow, guys!" Danny shouted back to the other two, but they were too busy playing Halo.

Figures.

After saying goodbye to Carrie and Mr. and Mrs. Fletcher, Danny and I started out walk home. It's cool because Danny lives across from me. We go to each other's houses almost every day. I looked over at Danny and saw that he was grinning; I couldn't help but smile too. His smiles are always contagious. I don't know what my life would be like without Danny. I can honestly say that it wouldn't be as interesting.

"So, that bird that you brought over, why did she leave so fast?" Danny asked, bringing up conversation. I shrugged, not really knowing the answer.

"I don't know, maybe she couldn't stand being around you ugly people anymore." I teased in reply and poked Danny in the cheek. I always made fun of the fact that he had freckles on his face and he always made fun of me for pretty much everything else.

"Do you actually think that she got that bruise from the ping pong ball?" Danny asked, suddenly he wasn't all smiley as he was before.

"It looked like it." I replied thoughtfully.

"It looked kinda big for it to be from a ping-pong ball and it got there pretty fast." Danny continued. He stayed silent for a few seconds and then was suddenly happy again. "What do you want to do after school tomorrow? I don't have football practice so we can hang out."

"I'm not sure, we'll figure something out." I replied and looked over at my house in the distance. A feeling of dread washed over me as I saw my dad standing on the porch, angrily tapping his foot.

"Do you want to come over now?" Danny asked. I blinked and looked at him before looking back over at my dad. He had just seen me and now looked even more menacing than he did before. My stomach lurched at the thought of the flies that he had made me eat earlier in the night.

"Dougie!" my dad called impatiently. I winced, hearing the anger in his voice.

"No, uh, sorry dude, I have to go!" I muttered and gripped my guitar case tighter in my hand and started to run up the driveway as fast as I could. I leapt up onto the porch and darted inside, my dad followed close behind me. As soon as he shut the door, he lit into me, shoving me onto the ground and kicking me in the back and the side.

"I TOLD YOU TO STAY IN AND MAKE ME MY FUCKING DINNER!" He shouted as he continued to kick me. I tried not to cry out in pain, but it hurt so badly. Tears stung my eyes as he continued to hit me. "WHO SAID THAT YOU COULD GO OUT? HUH?"

He lifted me up off of the floor and punched my across the face. I could feel my lip split and tasted the blood in my mouth. My dad glared down at me, before sucking back and spitting on my cheek. I stared up at him, not bothering to wipe his loogie off of my face.

"Get out of my sight!" he hissed and turned around to walk back into the living room. I struggled to push myself up to my knees.

"W-what about dinner?" I asked before holding onto my side as it erupted in pain.

"No dinner for you!" he called back.

Crying, I got to my feet and grabbed my bass guitar before slowly making my way up the stairs. It hurt so much to move. My lip was pulsing with my pulse; my sides and my back were killing me. I felt like I would die or pass out from the pain.

I went into my bedroom and closed the door behind me, dropping my bass guitar to the floor. I slid to the floor, sobbing. I didn't care if my dad heard me; he was the one that hurt me. Apparently he didn't care about me at all when he moved back in here. I continued to cry as Maggie, who was sleeping under my bed, poked her head out and looked at me. She got up and padded over to where I was and lay down on my lap.

Offering me little comfort that I really needed.

-

At school the next day, I purposely left to go to school early. I didn't want my mum or my sister to see the bruises that I had on my face. I had a brief run in with dad when I was coming out of the bathroom and he gave me a smile and apologized for what he did last night.

'You just made me kind of mad. I don't handle anger very well.'

That was his excuse.

He doesn't handle anger very well.

Apparently you do, _dad_, because I had three large bruises on my back, my side, and my stomach, and I have a black eye, and a split lip that I have to hide from mum and Jazzie. That's great. Thanks a lot.

I winced as I sat down in my seat at the back of my English class. Thankfully, Danny, Tom, and Harry don't have this class with me. Being two years older than me, Tom and Harry are in the grade above me, being seniors, but Danny is one year older than me so he's in my grade. Good thing is that he's just not in my English class. So I didn't have to see him for now.

"What happened to you?"

I looked up from the desk and saw Riley standing next to me, her eyes flicking over my face. Her lip twitched slightly and she grabbed her right arm with her left hand.

"Oh not much, just walked into a tree." I replied, the lie easily rolling off my tongue. She gave a small smile in reply.

"I've had that happen before, too many times actually." She replied and sighed before sitting down in front of me and turned around. "I hope you don't think I was rude for leaving like that yesterday. I actually did have something to do."

"Nah, it's cool, I actually thought that you would want to get away from my friends. They aren't that charming." I replied, rolling my eyes. Riley laughed a little bit and I couldn't help but smile.

"No, they're really cool." Riley insisted. She started to say something but the teacher walked into the room and cut her off. She gave another smile before turning around in her seat to face the front.

There's something different about her.

But I like it.


	11. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

As soon as English was over, I ran out of the classroom and ducked to the floor and started to army crawl. I didn't care that I was getting a lot of weird looks; I just didn't want to be seen by my mates. I wanted to avoid them for a while, long enough to cover my black eye. They ask too many questions sometimes and I didn't' have the energy to answer all of them.

I pressed my back against a row of lockers and peered around the corner. Good, they weren't there. Now all I have to do is run to my next class and I'll be-

"Dougie?"

Damn It! Damn it all!

I turned around and forced a smile as I saw Danny, Tom, and Harry walking towards me. "Hey guys, what's new?"

"That facelift that you got, apparently," Harry replied as he saw the black eye that I had. "What happened?"

"Oh, I just walked into a pole, stupid me, I was watching this fit girl down the street-"I stopped and shrugged, the smile still on my face. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Danny nodding slowly. He definitely didn't believe me; he walked home with me last night. I was just surprised that he wasn't giving me away.

"Dougie, are you ok? You're acting kind of weird." Tom said in concern.

"Weird how?" I asked, turning to look at him. Yeah, he definitely was concerned; he had that parenting look on his face. The one he always gets when he's trying to help someone with their problems. We always go to Tom if there's something that's bothering us. Me and Danny mostly, because we talked to him about our fathers.

But there was no way that I could talk to him about what was going on now.

"I can't put my finger on it, but you're not acting like the normal Dougie." He replied.

"I'm just tired." I replied easily and then looked up at the ceiling as the bell rang. "We're going to be late, c'mon Danny."

"Coming," Danny replied and gave the others a little wave before hurrying after me. "So, exactly what did happen last night with that bird?"

"She came back to my place and we shagged all night long." I replied with a straight face, knowing that Danny was joking. "Seriously?"

"Yeah, mate."

"I walked into a door."

"Then why would you hide it?" Danny sounded confused. I looked at my feet to keep from looking at his face.

Right then, I actually considered telling Danny what happened. But I decided not to, I didn't need him to worry about me when he already had his fair share of problems. I wasn't that kind of friend, to dump everything that bothered me onto him.

"I didn't want them to think that I was a loser by walking into doors and stuff, stupid really." I replied and hurried into the classroom and into my seat. History class. That's perfect; it was the only class that could actually put me to sleep. And the fact that I was so tired from crying myself to sleep didn't help matters much.

I soon found myself drifting off.

"Douglas?" I heard my name being called and a loud bang went along with it. I jumped, looking around, blinking, wondering where I was.

"Huh?" I asked in confusion. "What, sorry?"

"Perhaps you'd like to share with the class what kept you up sp late?" The history teacher, Miss. Martin said coolly. It didn't faze me, I knew it wasn't a question, it was an order. I thought of saying something sarcastic, but I knew that it would get me in a lot of trouble. Most likely with my dad.

"Um... studying?"

"If you did so much studying, why haven't you finished your homework?"

"I...um..."

The bell rang and I sighed in annoyance as I held out my hand. Great, another detention. Now what was I going to do to explain myself. Say that I cried myself to sleep because my daddy hit me? Somehow I didn't think that was going to go over well.

I looked at the detention slip that she slapped into my hand and shook my head before looking up at her. "Miss. Martin, I can't do detention after school today, I have to pick up my sister."

"Well, you should have thought of that before disrespecting my classroom."

"Disrespecting your classroom?! I was only sleeping!"

"You're dismissed Douglas."

"This is bull-"

"Come on Dougie!" Danny interrupted, grabbing my arm and dragging me out of the classroom and into the hall. I sighed in frustration and started to pace back and forth, clenching and unclenching my hands as I breathed heavily. "Luckily I saved you from her wrath, huh?" he asked and poked me in the side.

Danny had a startled look on his face as I let out a loud cry of pain and held into my side. He had poked me in my bruised spot and it hurt like hell.

"YOU IDIOT!" I shouted at him, still reeling with pain. "YOU STUPID, STPID IDIOT! DON'T YOU EVER THINK BEFORE YOU DO THINGS?"

Danny stood where he was and the pain slowly subsided, my anger subsiding too. I was left with regret. I stood up straight and looked over at Danny, who was looking back at me, a mixture of hurt and confusion on his face.

I sighed heavily and slumped my shoulders.

"Sorry for snapping at you, dude." I muttered. "I'm just really pissed off with what happened and when I ran into the door I hit my side too and you kind of hit it. Really. I'm sorry. Can you forgive me?"

A grin bloomed over Danny's face, taking me by surprise.

"As long as you buy my lunch."

"Deal"


	12. Chapter 11

**Chapter Eleven**

"Hey Jazzie, I'm home!" I called as I closed the front door behind me. "Sorry I wasn't able to walk you after school today! I got a detention!"

I waited for a few seconds and was surprised at the fact that Jazzie hadn't come running out of the kitchen laughing hysterically, or just plain happy to see me. She normally is.

"Jazz?" I dropped my backpack on the ground and looked back out of the window by the front door. Mum's car was gone and so was Dad's, I just didn't get why she hadn't come to greet me. Shrugging, I decided to go up to her room to see if she was home. Maybe she was at a friend's house and I didn't know. "Jazz, did I do something to make you mad at me?" I asked as I continued to walk to her room.

"No, you didn't do anything," Jazzie whispered as I walked into her bedroom. I furrowed my eyebrows in confusion as I walked over to her. She was lying down on her bed, facing the wall. I walked over to see her face and I saw that her eyes were wide open.

I saw that she was crying.

"Jazz, what's wrong?" I asked quietly, brushing her tears off of her cheeks.

"Nothing's wrong, I just had a bad day at school." She replied so quietly that I barely heard her.

"I know that's not true, because you always live for school and even if you have a bad day you're smiling," I replied and moved her legs and sat down next to her, repositioning her legs in my lap. "Now, what's going on? What's wrong?"

She was silent.

"Can I guess?"

She didn't answer.

"Um, this doesn't have anything to do with school," I muttered, rubbing my chin. "Does it have to do with mum? Is she ok?"

"She's fine."

"Does it have to do with dad?"

I watched her as she flinched and squeezed her eyes shut, as if something had just scared her. Obviously, this had something to do with dad. But what? I hadn't noticed anything different about the way that she acted around him. Sure, she didn't want him to move back into our lives, but I hadn't seen.

Wait a minute.

I put my hand to my chin as I shifted my eyes back and forth, deep in thought.

'_She does seem to be more attached to mum lately. It's like she doesn't want to be out of her sight. And whenever we're home with dad, she always locks herself in her room, like I do myself. Maybe he's been hitting her too?_'

"Jazz, I'm going to ask you this and I want a straight answer. Don't lie; can you do that for me?"

"Yeah"

"Has dad been hitting you?"

Jazzie burst out crying and I waited for her to say something. I hated to see her cry, it always made me want to go and punch the person that hurt her. Sometimes I felt that I could kill the person. In this case, I wouldn't hesitate to hurt our dad.

"No, Dougie, he's been…touching me." She whispered in reply and bowed her head, as if she was too scared to look me in the eye.

"What do you mean…he's been touching you?" I asked, knowing full well what she meant. I just wanted to hear her say it out loud. I growled in rage when she didn't answer me. "JAZZIE, TELL ME!"

"NO!" She shouted in reply and flopped over into my lap, sobbing loudly. I sighed and rubbed her back gently. I shouldn't have yelled at her, I knew that, but I'm just so mad at dad right now.

How can he do something like that?

Him hitting me I understand, but I don't see how he could cause his thirteen year old daughter to be so scared of him that she doesn't ever want to go home.

"It's going to be ok, Jazz." I said softly, wrapping my arms around her. "We just have to tell mum and-"

"No! Don't tell mum, I don't want her to know!" Jazzie replied sitting up quickly, her eyes wide. "She has some sort of thing with dad that she doesn't want to believe that he can do anything wrong. I just want her to be happy. Don't tell her, please."

"Fine, I won't tell her." I replied, rubbing my forehead in annoyance.

"Dougie, what happened to your face?"

"Dad punched me," I replied warily. "We were having an argument, which has been happening a lot lately, and he just punched me. I'm fine. I'm more worried about you though. You're not going to be alone with dad anymore, come on, you can move into my room."

"With all of your smelly lizards?" Jazzie asked as she wrinkled her nose. I knew that she was just trying to take her mind off of things, but I also knew that she would never forget anything that has happened to her.

I got up from her bed and bent down, holding my arms behind my back and Jazzie climbed onto my back, wrapping her arms around my neck. I walked down the stairs to get her something to eat, but turned when I HEARD THE DOORBELL RING.

It wouldn't surprise me if it was Danny, but whenever he came over, he usually just barged in. Unless he knew that my mum was annoyed about something.

"Yes?" I asked, opening the door. "Oh, hey."

"Hey," Riley replied as she brushed her hair out of her face. "You forgot this at school," she said and held out my skateboard.

"Oh, thanks, I didn't notice I didn't have it." I replied and took it from her, effectively dropping Jazzie to the ground at the same time. "This is my sister."

"Hi, I'm Jazzie. The better child of the family." She said and thrust her hand out towards Riley. I saw her flinch a little bit before taking Jazzie's hand and shaking it.

"Nice to meet you," she replied politely. "Well, I just wanted to bring that by, I'll see you later."

"Do you want to come in for something to eat?" Jazzie asked, looking at me and then quickly looking back at Riley. I could practically see the gears turning in her head.

"Uh, my dad is probably looking for me, so I shouldn't." she replied, shaking her head and taking a step back. "It was nice to meet you, Jazzie. Bye Dougie."

"Bye" I replied and closed the door. "Don't say it." I said as I started to walk to the kitchen.

"Don't say what?" Jazzie piped up, walking beside me. I saw the smile on her face and the mischievous glint in her eye. "Don't say that you like her?"

"I knew you were going to say that and no I don't!" I replied, digging my fingers into her stomach, the spot where she is ticklish. She started to laugh and pushed my hands away.

I was happy to see a smile on her face.

If only for a little while.


	13. Chapter 12

**Chapter Twelve**

It's been two weeks. And during those two weeks Dougie has kept Jazzie in his sights at all times. Unless he had to go to school. Their mother was wondering why they were practically glued to each other's sides, and Jazzie came up with the quick excuse by saying that they were finally getting along. When she said this, Dougie looked over at his mum to see if she believed it. He wasn't sure, especially considering the fact that she looked so tired from work. But she seemed to accept it.

In those two weeks Sam and Gary had gone out a lot and Sam was starting to trust Gary again, much to Dougie's disappointment. Almost every day, his dad would put on a big show for Sam, to prove that he's a good father, but as soon as she would leave the room he would hit Dougie. Usually he would hit Dougie because he wasn't fast enough with getting something done, he wasn't doing as well in his class work that he could, if he talked back, or even if he just felt like it.

Danny, Tom, and Harry were becoming worried about their friend because he has been starting to act really weird. He usually gets mad about things easily, he almost puts up a fight against going home, he has a lot of bruises when he gets to school, and he flinches every time someone is going to give him a high five or is going to put their arm around his shoulder. They recently became friends with Riley and she sort of acts the same way, but isn't as paranoid whenever someone raises a hand near her.

So, two weeks of this has gone by and Danny is extremely worried about Dougie, so he decides to try and figure out what's going on.

* * *

"Hey Dougie, it's time to go" Jazzie said as she walked into her brother's bedroom. He looked up from the bottle of cover-up that was in his hands and wordlessly continued to dab it over his eye. "A shiner?"

"If there is anything worse than a shiner, this would be it; it hurts to open my eye." Dougie replied as he closed the bottle and put it in his backpack. He stood up, turned towards the mirror, and lifted his shirt. A big black, blue, and green bruise was on his right side. He slowly bent to the left, to see how far he could stretch, and winced in pain, quickly moving back to his original position. "Can't bend a lot either."

"I'm sorry, you didn't' have to stand up for me last night." Jazzie replied quietly and hung her head as tears threatened to fall down her cheeks.

"You kidding?" Dougie raised his eyebrows as if he wasn't sure that she had just asked that question. "I don't think dad is smart enough to realize that I'm not going to let him touch you."

"Thanks Dougie"

"No problem. Now let's go before dad screams at us for being late." Dougie said and pushed his sister out the door. The two ran down the stairs and out the front door, getting into the car that was sitting at the bottom of the driveway.

"What took you so long, I was getting worried." Gary said as he stepped on the gas and pulled out into the street. Dougie snorted to himself, already knowing that his father was trying to mask how furious he was.

"I was just making some lunch; I didn't realize how long I had been working on it." Jazzie replied before Dougie could say anything. He elbowed her in the ribs and made a face, she widened her eyes in reply, silently answering his unasked question.

He let out a heavy sigh and slid down in his seat, staring out the window. The rest of the drive went by in silence and as soon as Jazzie saw the middle school in view, she pushed the door open and jumped out of the car, stumbling slightly as the car was still moving.

"What the hell are you doing?!" Gary demanded, slamming on the breaks.

"Sorry dad, I'm late for something!" Jazzie shouted in reply as she ran towards the school, not looking behind her. Dougie smirked a little bit and quickly hid a smirk behind his hand as he rested his elbow on the side of the car, waiting impatiently to get to school.

Along the way, he thought of some lies that would satisfy his friend's constant questions. He had already said that he tripped into his door, twice. He has already said that Jazzie had tried to hit him and he turned his head away at the last moment, because she was mad at him. And he already said that he was hit by a baseball bat.

'_Maybe this time, I can say that I fell over a chair and hit my face on the corner of the table as I fell to the floor._' Dougie thought to himself. '_The more detail I have in the lie, the better, then they won't be able to tell if I'm lying or not_.'

"DOUGIE!"

"What?" Dougie shouted back. He knew from his father's tone that this wasn't the first time that he had called him. He knew that he would pay for talking back, later.

"You're here, get out" Gary replied through gritted teeth. Dougie rolled his eyes as he got out of the car. He had just closed the trunk, pulling his bass out, when his dad drove away.

"Glad to know it wasn't the passenger door, I would have gotten my foot crushed." Dougie commented to himself as he cocked his head to the side.

"Hi Dougie!"

"Aah!" Dougie cried out at the sudden voice and turned around to face a smirking Riley, her blue eyes were dancing with amusement. Dougie calmed down and smiled. "Geez, you know I hate it when you do that."

"That's why I do it." She replied her smirk fading. "What happened to your eye?"

"I was running through a kitchen, tripped over a chair, and hit my eye on the corner of the table on the way down." Dougie replied easily. Riley stared at him and he shrugged. "I'm telling the truth if you don't believe me."

"It's not that," she replied, shaking her head. "It's just that it's kind of a coincidence." She replied, turning around and the two walked into the school.

"Coincidence how?" Dougie asked as he dodged around the people that blocked the hallway. He made sure that no one hit him in the side too, and even if they grazed it a little bit, he gritted his teeth and hissed in pain.

"It's a coincidence because the same thing happened to me, but I got this scar," she replied and lifted her bangs off of her forehead to show that she had a scar on her forehead at her hair line. Dougie stared at her, and unreadable expression on his face and she gave a small smile in reply before walking down another hallway to get to her locker.

Dougie narrowed his eyes in thought as he slowly walked to his locker. '_What did she mean by that?_' all of a sudden his eyes widened. '_Does she know the truth? Or worse…the same thing is happening to her_.' Dougie shook the thought out of his head as he continued towards his locker. He groaned to himself when he saw that Danny, Tom, and Harry were waiting for him by his locker.

"Hi guys" he muttered as he turned the combination on his lock and opened his locker door.

"Hey Dougie, how was your weekend? We missed you at Harry's house." Tom replied quietly, as if he had no clue what to say.

"Yeah, well, dad said I couldn't go, so I stayed home and hung out with my sister." Dougie replied confidently. "What about you guys, what did you do?"

"Played Halo, didn't sleep. You really should've come" Harry replied.

"Yeah, well, I couldn't!" Dougie snapped in reply, suddenly very angry. His tone caused Danny, Tom, and Harry to flinch. "Unlike you guys who were wasting life away playing stupid video games, I was taking care of my sister, excuse me for doing that!"

"We didn't say that it was a bad thing that you were taking care of your sister." Tom said gently.

"Whatever" Dougie slammed his locker door shut and stormed off to his first period class. Tom, Harry, and Danny stared after him.

"One of us should go and see if everything is alright at his house." Tom muttered as soon as Dougie was out of ear shot. Danny and Harry turned to look at him, peculiar looks on their faces. "What?"

"Do you really think that something is going on over there?" Harry asked, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not exactly sure, but I'm worried about him, it's just a thought." Tom replied with a heavy sigh, suddenly feeling very weary.

"I'll do it." Danny spoke up.

"Are you sure?" Harry asked him.

"Apart from your guys, Dougie is my best mate; I'll go see what's going on." Danny replied, nodding confidently.

* * *

Danny sighed as he ran up the steps of Dougie's house. He had a bad feeling about the house, even when he was outside of it. Letting out a sigh, he raised a fist and knocked on the front door. Waiting for about five minutes, he rocked back and forth on his heels and looked up and down the street. Just when he was about to leave, the door opened and Dougie stood in front of him in a gray t-shirt and jeans that were sagging so much Danny could see most of his boxers.

"What are you doing here?" Dougie mumbled, not looking at him.

"I wanted to talk to you, can I come in?" Danny asked, taking a step forward and looking over his shoulder. Dougie narrowed his eyes and closed the door as he stepped down on the porch with Danny. "Standing out here is fine too."

"Talk about what?" Dougie demanded, already getting to the point.

"The guys and I were talking and we're worried about you," Danny started, looking at Dougie. He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked at the ceiling of the porch as Danny continued. "You're constantly coming to school with bruises, you're getting mad for no reason, and you're always making excuses about something. And…well to put it lightly, you smell."

Dougie winced. He knew that he probably smelled bad, even with all of the deodorant that he put on. But it's the fact that his dad wouldn't let him shower, just in case he was planning on making something to hurt him and use the excuse as a shower to cover it.

When his father first told him that, Dougie rolled his eyes, earning a hard smack to the back of the head and thought '_wow, my dad must be really paranoid. Apparently he doesn't know that we're too scared to do anything.'_

"Yeah, well, you'd smell too if you didn't feel like a taking a shower _every_ day." Dougie replied slowly. "And you'd snap a lot if you were under a lot of pressure to get good grades. I'm constantly coming to school with bruises because I'm a klutz and I don't like it when people know I'm a klutz. You happy?"

"No, because I know that you're not telling me the truth." Danny replied firmly. "C'mon Dougie, you can tell me. If it's something really bad, I promise I won't tell anyone."

Silence.

Danny stared at Dougie.

Dougie stared back.

Then he sighed as if he was going to say something that he would regret. "Alright, do you promise that you won't tell anyone?"

"Yes, I promise."

Dougie hesitated and then blurted everything out. From the time that his father came home, to the times that he had hit Dougie, to the time when he figured out that he touched his sister, and everything in between. Danny just stood there, listening.

"Well, aren't you going to say something?" Dougie asked as soon as he finished and Danny didn't say anything. Danny shrugged.

"What can I say? I promised I won't tell anyone and I promise that. But I'm also going to tell the police or my mum if I think that you're in too much danger or if things are going out of hand. Other than that, you can stay at my place when you need it." Danny replied.

Dougie opened his mouth to protest but Danny raised a hand, cutting him off.

"Just agree to it, I'm trying to help you, idiot" Danny replied and smiled a little bit.

Dougie smiled back and nodded.


	14. Chapter 13

**Chapter Thirteen**

I sat on the edge of the fountain and looked around and then looked down at my watch. 2:30. it had been a half an hour since I left.

For the past two days, Danny had been acting really careful around me and it was starting to make me feel extremely stupid for telling him what was going on, but it also made me feel better to know that someone else knows how we're doing. It also helped me to know that he wasn't going to tell anyone what has been going on.

I sighed and tilted my head back in thought. My mum had been acting very depressed lately. Well, depressed around Jazzie and me, whenever Dad was around she got happy. But I haven't seen her genuinely happy in a while. Jazzie must have noticed it too, because she had decided to take mum out to have some fun. I don't know what they do when they go out, and I probably don't know either.

But as soon as they left the house, I left too. I didn't want to be stuck with dad, especially when I knew that there was a chance that I was going to be hurt again, and again, and again, and again.

I heard a splash in the fountain behind me, over the sound of my thoughts rushing through my head, and the sound of the water that was coming out of the fountain. I turned my head and saw Riley standing next to me, brushing off her hands on the side of her pants.

"Are you sure you're not stalking me?" I asked in a half-joking manner. I wasn't really in the mood for jokes. "Almost everywhere I go, you're there."

"Yeah, I've been stalking you ever since I moved here" Riley replied with a straight face. I raised an eyebrow.

"Are you serious?"

Riley turned to look at the fountain and then looked back at me. "You hungry?"

"Yeah. Why?" I asked, taken aback at her sudden change of subject.

"I thought you would be" she replied shortly. "Let's get something to eat; I have something I want to talk to you about anyway."

"Sure thing" I replied and got up from the side of the fountain. I pulled a coin out of my pocket and flipped it into the fountain before walking out of the park. "What did you want to talk about?"

"You'll see in a few minutes," she replied, looking at her feet as she continued to walk. I looked at her and noticed that she was limping a little bit, but decided not to say anything about it. But after walking for a few minutes her limping seemed to get worse and she was gritting her teeth as if she was trying not to cry out in pain. "I'll be fine" she said.

I blinked and placed my hands on my hips.

"I know that you're not fine, considering that you're practically falling all over the sidewalk." I replied. "Let me get you to a doctor."

"I don't need a doctor!" she spat as she stopped and rested most of her weight on her other leg. I snorted.

"Are you serious?"

"I'm being completely serious. I don't need any medical attention, I'm fine."

"That's bull shit. You need a doctor"

"I could say the same to you"

That got me. I straightened up from my stance that radiated annoyance and raised an eyebrow. I could tell that I had a confused look on my face because Riley had a serious one on hers. "What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, running my fingers through my hair.

"Contrary to what you think, Dougie, I'm not stupid" she snapped in reply.

"I never said that you were stupid."

"But from your actions you're insinuating that I am."

"What are you talking about?"

Riley looked around before taking a step closer to me. Her eyes were narrowed and I could tell that she was completely pissed off. "I'm not stupid Dougie. I know that you're abused."

I took a step back, completely caught off guard. "W-what? What are you talking about?"

"You're abused, your dad hits you." She replied and her eyes narrowed further. "Don't try to deny it, I know that you are."

"How did you know?" I asked finally after a minute of silence. I seriously didn't want to admit it, but the tone of her voice and they way that she was looking at me let me know that she was completely serious.

"Because…I'm abused too" she replied.


	15. Chapter 14

**Chapter Fourteen**

"W-what?" I stammered, blinking rapidly. I ran a hand over my face and breathed deeply, and then looked at her face, trying to see if she was serious. She was just staring back at me, so I wasn't sure whether or not that I actually believed her. "Are you serious?"

She cocked an eyebrow. "Do you really think that I would joke about something like that?"

"No, but if you think about it, I don't really know you very well, so I wouldn't know whether or not that you're lying." I replied.

"That's true," she agreed with a nod. "And I don't really know you either, but I'm not dumb enough to fall for your excuses each time that you get hurt."

"I'm _not_ making excuses!" I shouted, clenching my hands into fists. Riley smirked and slowly shook her head before poking a finger in my face.

"That's your problem right there, you're in denial." She said and then reached a hand into her pocket and pulled out a pen. She pulled my hand out and uncurled my fingers and started to write on the palm of my hand. Before I could ask her what she was doing, she pushed my hand away. "Go to that address, whenever he hits you again."

"My dad doesn't hit me" I muttered as she walked by me.

"Keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better."

* * *

"Danny back off of my sandwich!" I declared at lunch when school started again.

I was really starting to dread school. It was the same thing day after day. People are always coming up to me and asking what was wrong with me. My teachers are showing more concern than they need to. Along with that, I've been getting test after test after test that I'm never able to be prepared for. Having to be reminded of what Riley had said to me, so now I was, gasp, starting to worry about her. And of course my friends worrying about me, like that wasn't going to happen. I think I've taken all I could take of people worrying.

It was really starting to drag me down.

I looked forward to lunch more than anything, because then I could just relax and actually have fun, plus, I've gotten better at avoiding questions, so that's been working better for me.

"Sorry, dude," Danny grinned and I rolled my eyes, tearing it in half and handing half of it to him. He smiled graciously before taking a bite. "But I was in a rush this morning and I wasn't able to make my lunch."

"I'm sure." I replied and smirked, looking around the cafeteria. "So, have you seen Tom and Harry today?" I asked casually. Danny shook his head, his mouth full of food.

"They had to do some sort of project for their English class." He replied and then shrugged his shoulders. "Which really sucks, because that's what you and I are going to be doing next year. I heard that it is a really hard project to do. Tom's been working on it al weekend. It's going to take all three of us hours to make him agree for a rehearsal."

"Would it bug you to know that Harry knows a place where we can get a gig done this weekend?" I asked suddenly. I winced when Danny started to choke, and he coughed, shooting a little bit of his, well _my_, sandwich into my face.

"Sorry," he wheezed and coughed again, thumping himself in the chest. "That was a bit of surprise, really. Anyway, I think that a concert is a good idea. I mean, to become famous we need at least one gig, yeah? I think that it would be a good experience for us, plus, it will probably make Tom finally pull that rod out of his arse."

I laughed along with Danny, trying to hide the pain that probably flashed across my face. My ribs had been bruised over the weekend and it still hurts. I didn't tell Jazzie because I didn't want to alarm her. Apparently mum was starting to feel a better about things that had been going on. She has really started to like dad being back in our lives. He had recently taken her out on a date, and she was beaming when she got back home.

I asked Jazzie about it and she said that as long as mum was happy, she was happy.

Well, that's easy for her to say. I keep her in my sight as long as possible, and she doesn't get touched, while I'm the 'bad kid' and get hit.

Kind of ironic.

"Hm" I muttered as I lifted my head, deep in thought.

"_My dad doesn't hit me" _

"_Keep telling yourself that if it makes you feel better."_

"Something wrong?" Danny asked, cocking his head to the side. I looked over at him and saw that he was looking back at me in concern. I don't think I've ever seen him recently without a concerned look on his face. It was really starting to annoy me. Right now I'm trying really hard to keep my annoyance from showing.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about something." I replied and scanned the cafeteria. I hated how people were able to go around, eating and laughing with each other, acting as if their lives were perfect.

Well, Life's a bitch, and I hadn't really noticed it until now.

"Something or someone?"

I snapped my head to the side and looked at Danny as he grinned back at me. His freckled cheeks plumping up and his blue eyes twinkling in amusement. I stared back at him, wishing that I could find something to smile about, but failed.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I mean, Tom and Harry have noticed this too so don't get mad at me," he said quickly. I chukled a little bit and nodded for him to continue. "I mean, that we've noticed that something has been going on between you and Riley."

"Care to elaborate?"

"Ooh, big word"

"I'm being serious, Danny."

"So'm I," he replied and blinked, looking confused. It's a normal look for him, so I wasn't really that worried about it, I could practically see the girls turning in his head as it was anyway. "Are you sure that there's nothing going on? Because you two seem to be pretty close."

"I'm positive." I replied and stood up, gathering my trash. I looked down at him and shrugged. "We just get each other. I'll see you later, apparently the principal wants to talk to me about something?"

"You in trouble?"

"It wouldn't be the first time." I smirked in reply and held my hand out for a high-five. "I'll see you later." I said as Danny slapped his hand into my palm and smiled again. That was another thing that I liked about Danny.

You can almost always see him smiling.

I walked down to the principal's office, trying to think of what I could have possibly done to have to go to the principal's office. Sure I had been late to school. I had also talked back to teachers, refused to do homework, pretty much the usual stuff.

'_What could they possibly want me for now?_'

As soon as I walked into the principal's office, the secretary waved me inside. That definitely set up even more warning flags in my head. There was definitely something going on.

I went into the office and sat down in the chair, waiting for the principal to get off of the phone. As soon as he did, he folded his hands in front of him and leaned towards me. "Do you like Gable Hall, Douglas?"

I almost laughed out loud. Not a lot of people called me Douglas, so it was kind of shock to hear it now. But then I thought about the question. It never really occurred to me that I loved the school, no matter how annoying it could be. I couldn't see myself going to another school than this one.

"I like this school, sure." I shrugged in reply. "Why?"

The principal stared at me, not answering my question. My suspicions were heightened even more (to the point where I wanted to jump out of my chair and go tearing down the hallway.) when he completely changed the subject.

"Douglas," he sighed and rubbed his forehead. "I've had some teachers coming to me, talking about you."

"Yes?"

"They said that you have been acting differently," he replied and eyed me when he continued talking. "You haven't been doing your homework, which, actually, isn't that surprising for you. But you've been extremely rude to other students; you've been talking back to teachers. You've been late to school on many occasions. And you seem to be hiding something."

"I'm not hiding anything."

"Are you sure?"

I rolled my eyes. "Uh, yeah, I'm completely sure, I'm not hiding anything."

"Your gym teacher has told me that you've been coming to school a lot with bruises and cuts and making excuses for them. Do you have anything to say about that?"

I shook my head; I knew what was going to happen if I told the truth. "I'm just clumsy. Really, you can ask my sister and my friends, I'm extremely clumsy."

The principal stared at me.

I stared back.

He sighed and picked up the phone.

"I'm going to have to call your parents and bring them down here."

"You can't do that!" I protested, my heart beat rising rapidly.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Poynter, I have to."

I sat down.

"Dammit" I whispered to myself.


	16. Chapter 15

**A/N: This chapter is in 3****rd**** person, and this story is going to end soon, I already have an idea for the ending. I hope you enjoy this chapter.**

* * *

**Chapter Fourteen**

"I can't believe you made me come to your school today!" Gary growled as he and Dougie walked across the parking lot to get to Gary's car. "I can't believe you told them what I've been doing."

"But dad, I didn't tell them anything!" Dougie replied shrilly.

"THEN HOW DID THEY KNOW THAT YOU'VE HAVE CUTS AND BRUISES?" Gary demanded as he grabbed Dougie by his backpack straps and turned him around, slamming his back into the car. Gary got closer and started to shout in Dougie's face. "I KNOW THAT YOU TOLD THEM SOMETHING! YOU'RELUCKY THAT I AS ABLE TO BAIL YOU OUT OF YOU'D BE IN EVEN MORE TROUBLE THAN YOU ARE NOW!"

"Excuse me, are you alright?" a voice asked.

Gary let go of his son and Dougie slid to the ground, shaking. He looked up and saw Riley standing in front of the two of them, a skateboard in one hand; she was holding her backpack strap in the other. She looked over at Dougie. "Why are you going home so early? We still have the other half of the school day to get through."

"Dougie doesn't feel well." Gary replied sharply. Riley snorted.

"Yeah, I bet." She replied quietly, looking over at Dougie, who looked away.

"I'm sorry; I don't believe I know you." Gary replied calmly, oozing on the charm. Riley raised an eyebrow and dropped her skateboard on the ground, holding her hand out.

"I'm Riley."

"It's nice to meet you, Riley." Gary said as he took her hand and shook it firmly. He dropped her hand and practically hauled Dougie back up to his feet. "It's sweet of you to worry about Dougie here, but he's going to be fine and back to school tomorrow."

"Good to hear" Riley nodded lowly, as if she didn't believe him, and stepped on her skateboard, riding it back towards the school. Gary waited until he was out of earshot before yanking open the car door and shoving Dougie inside.

"We'll take more when we get home." Gary muttered as he got into the driver's side.

"Great." Dougie muttered to himself, shaking his head.

-

"Hey, do any of you guys know where Dougie went?" Tom asked as he, Danny, and Harry were at their lockers. Danny shook his head.

"He got sent to the principal's office and didn't come back after that." He shoved his hands into his pockets and looked at the ground. "I'm kind of worried."

"Why're you worried, he always get sent to the principal's office." Harry pointed out.

"I know, but his dad had to be called to the school." Danny replied. Harry stayed silent and Tom spoke up, staring at Danny.

"Danny, is there something that you know that you're not telling us?"

"Uh…well…" Danny rubbed the back of his head as he thought about whether or not that he should tell his friends what was really going on.

"Hey." Riley gasped as she hurried up to the three of them.

"Hi Riley." Harry greeted. "What's the rush? Did you run all the way over here?"

"Yeah, I need to tell you guys something." Riley replied and swallowed thickly as she grabbed onto the straps of her backpack. "It's about Dougie…and me…sorta and I'm not sure that you guys are going to like it."

"What, you're not going to be like Yoko Ono are you?" Danny asked. "You're trying to break up the band?"

Riley had a confused look on her face as she turned to Harry and Tom. "Yes, Danny is really that dumb sometimes. You don't even need to ask." Harry interjected and Riley nodded as if she understood. "What's going on with Dougie?"

"Well, you see…the reason that he doesn't like his dad being around…and the reason that he's been so mean and acting really weird is because of his dad."

"Yes?" Tom urged her to go on.

"Dougie's dad is abusing him."Riley replied, looking at the three of them in turn.

"What does that have to do with you?"

"I'm abused too"


	17. Chapter 16

**Chapter Fifteen**

Dougie turned his head to the side and stared at his cell phone that vibrated loudly. He watched, not bothering to pick it up, as it skidded to the edge of the desk and fell to the floor. He sighed and turned his head back to its original position, staring at the ceiling and sighed heavily. Groaning to himself, he reached a hand up to his face and lightly touched his black eye before lowering his arm to his side.

His whole body hurt, when he had gotten back home his dad had fully lit into him. Kicking, punching, throwing, screaming, cursing, crying. The crying was the only thing that Dougie could hear, seeing as it was coming from himself. He was trying to block the pain from him and the fact that he focused on his body-wracking sobs made him feel as if he wasn't even there.

He could hear his father watching TV downstairs, volume up really loud. He couldn't tell what it was, but everything, even the slightest movement of his toes seemed to cause explosions of pain to shoot through his body.

His phone started to vibrate again and Dougie growled with frustration before leaning over (albeit in pain) and picking it up to look at the screen. His heart started to beat faster when he saw that he had missed calls from Tom, Harry, and Danny.

"Calm down, Dougie. Just calm down. They're probably just want to talk to me about the gig that we have. That's it." He whispered to himself and pressed the 'ANSWER' button before slowly bringing the phone to his ear. "Hello?" he coughed and cleared his throat before speaking again. "Hello?"

"Dougie, dude, we need to talk." Tom's voice replied in a overly concerned tone.

"…w-w-w-what is it?" Dougie stammered.

"Well, we heard something weird today and I wasn't sure if it was true or not." Tom replied slowly bring up the topic. "I wanted to make sure if it was or not."

"What is it?"

"I'm not really sure how to ask this…but….are you being abused?"

Dougie's heart felt as if it stopped. His eyes grew wide as he slowly pulled his cell phone from his ear and closed it with a sharp click. He started to breathe heavily and fresh tears came to his eyes.

'_No, no, no, this can't be happening_' he thought to himself hysterically as he dropped the phone and backed away from it as if it was on fire. '_How could have found out…I'm sure Danny wouldn't have told. Unless_-'

Dougie got off of his bed and put on his shoes. He went over to his window and pulled it open before climbing up onto the roof and looking down at the ground. He stood up there for a few minutes, contemplating whether or not he should jump, before making his decision and leaping into the tree next to his house, like he had done before. But this time he didn't slip and he quickly shimmied his way to the ground.

As soon as his feet touched the ground, he took off across his lawn, looking over his shoulder to make sure that no one was following him, or watching him from their windows. He ran down the street, looking at his hand and alternately looking at the numbers that were on the houses that he passed. Finally he reached the house that he was looking for and went up to the door, pounding on it with his fist.

He waited on the front porch, breathing heavily, for a full five minuets before the door cracked open and half of Riley's face was visible.

"Yes?" she asked quickly.

"What did you do?" Dougie demanded. Riley must have recognized his voice because she pulled the door open further, bending her head so he couldn't see her face.

"What do you mean?" she murmured.

"You know damn well what I'm talking about!" Dougie hissed in reply, trying to keep his anger in check. "Now, why did you tell them?"

"Look, this really isn't a good time, so if you could just…leave." She mumbled in reply, looking over her shoulder nervously.

"Well, I deserve to know why you decided to-"

"Riley, who's there?" came a loud, demanding voice.

"No one, dad! Just some guy from school asking about homework, stay there, I'll be there in a minute." Riley replied quickly.

"Did you just give me an order?" Dougie blinked and listened as he heard footsteps come closer to the door. "_I'm _father in this family! _Not you! _Don't you fucking dare tell me what to do and what not to do! Come here so I can teach you some manners!"

"You may want to get out of here!" Riley said urgently, finally lifting her head. Dougie gasped when he saw her bloody nose and swollen chin, as if her aw had been broken. He hesitated as the footsteps got closer and closer. "Now! GET OUT OF HERE!" She shoved him backwards and slammed the door shut.

Dougie hurried down the steps of the front porch and down the lawn, only hesitating for a minute when he heard the sounds of screaming coming from behind the closed door. He took a step back to her house, but then turned and sprinted back to his own house.

As soon as he got there, Jazzie, who was sitting on the front porch, leapt up and ran over to meet him. "Dougie!" she cried and flung her arms around his waist.

"Jazz, what are you doing here?" he asked, knowing that she was supposed to be at a friend's house. "Where's mum?"

"Dad called and told her to take me home and for her to go out and spend the rest of the night by herself." She replied breathlessly and squeezed tighter. "I don't like this, Dougie. We have to get out of here!"

"Ok, let me just-"

Dougie stopped talking as the front door opened and their father stood there, glaring down at them. Jazzie gasped and ducked down behind Dougie as he stared back at their father.

"Get in here, now." He whispered menacingly. Dougie took Jazzie's hand and gripped it tightly before slowly walking towards the house. Their father glared at the two of them as they slowly walked into the house. Dougie kept Jazzie behind him as he slowly edged away, watching his father as he closed the front door and locked it. "You sneak out of the house when I slave away in the kitchen?"

He placed a hand on both of their shoulders and led them into the kitchen, where there were plates of steaming spaghetti waiting for them. Jazzie sat down in her seat and looked at the plate before looking back up at Dougie, who was hesitating himself.

"Go on..eat…its fine." Gary replied with a strange smile on his face.

Dougie hesitated and winced when he got a slap to the back of the head. He looked over at Jazzie again and started to eat the dinner, somewhat expecting some bad taste to hit the back of his throat. But it tasted like any other plate of spaghetti that he's had before.

Jazzie slowly started to eat the food too, looking over at their father also seeing that he had a funny smile on his face. Dougie continued to eat, trying to keep his father happy. Midway through his twentieth bite, he started to feel weird. Sweat suddenly popped up on his forehead. He lifted his right arm and it felt like it was taking years for it to be lifted up to the height of his chin.

He looked over at Jazzie and her eyes closed and she slumped off of her chair, onto the floor. Gary walked over to her and bent down, lifting her up off of the floor.

"What…did you do?" Dougie whispered as the room tilted and swayed. Before he knew it, he was lost in darkness.

* * *

**Dougie's POV**

I woke up to the sound of a door slamming shut. I sat up and looked around, quickly, only calming down when I saw that I was in my room. Jazzie was lying across, breathing heavily. I could tell that she was sleeping. I got to my feet and stumbled around the room, my legs felt as if they would give way any second.

I knew that we had been drugged. I reached Jazzie's side and knelt down next to her. "Jazz" I hissed, grabbing onto her shoulders and shaking her roughly. We had to get out of here and fast.

"Leave me alone, I'm sleeping" she muttered in reply, opening her eyes. They couldn't focus on mine and they were dilated. I knew that she was in even more trouble than me, just because of the fact that she's younger and her body is still developing. I had to get her to a hospital.

"Well, you'll be sleeping a lot more if you don't' get up!" I snapped in reply and started to gather her in my arms. "Dad's coming"

"Kids" I heard dad say in a sweet voice as my bedroom door open slowly, as if a horror scene from a really scary movie that was my life. I dropped Jazzie and rushed over to the door and rammed into it, slamming it shut. Dad started to pound on the door, the door knob twisted wildly. I could practically feel his anger through the door as I tried to hold it. "_Open this damn door!_"

I cried out in shock as I felt my dad slam his whole body weight against the door. I grunted with the effort of trying to keep the door shut. Like a rabid dog, dad kept slamming himself against the door with such force, I could feel my feet slid against the floor.

After one more buck, the door was pushed forcefully open. The force of the door flying open threw me across the room.

"Ah, let go" I whimpered, getting up to my knees as Dad strode over and grabbed me by the hair. I coughed as he punched me in the stomach.

"Never. Shut. The. Door. On. Me. Again" he whispered, glaring at me. "DO YOU HEAR ME? NEVER DO THAT AGAIN!

This time he punched me across the face and kicked me in the stomach. I fell to the floor. I screamed in pain as dad grabbed another fistful of my hair and pulled tightly, pulling me across the floor of the room.

Jazzie got to her feet and raced to the bedroom door. Dad grabbed onto her leg as she passed him and she screamed, falling forward. She hit her head on my night stand and fell to the ground.

I started over to her, but a whistling sound and the force of something hitting me square in the face knocked me back into the closed door. I looked up through the pain and saw my dad standing over me with a baseball bat in his hands. He swung it again and I dove to the side, the bat hitting the ground right where my leg had been.

"LEAVE US ALONE" Jazzie shrieked from the corner that she was huddling in.

"Don't tell me what the fucking hell to do" Dad hissed as he turned to her, swinging the bat over and over.

I turned my head away, not bearing to watch anymore of what was happening. But I felt my dad grab my chin and jerk my head up, I opened my eyes to look at him, tears falling down my cheeks.

"Now, you watch me! Do you understand me?" dad yelled. "WATCH ME!" I nodded and flinched as he spat in my face.

Jazzie shakily got to her feet as dad walked over to her. Her face was pale and blood was dripping out of her nose and mouth. Her eyes were half closed and her clothes were torn from where dad was grabbing her and she tried to get away.

"You brats make me sick" Dad growled and he struck Jazzie in the side of the head with the bat.

"JAZZIE!" I screamed and got to my feet before flailing into my dad. He easily overpowered me and turned me around, shoving me in to the window. I steadied myself against it, trying to gain my balance. The room was spinning crazily.

I looked up briefly, seeing a shadow move. Before I could move, Dad smashed a fist into my forehead, the back of my head slammed against the window and Ifell unconscious, sliding to the floor. . .

At least…for now…I was safe…

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**A/N: This is the last chapter, the next one is the epilogue. Thanks for reading guys and don't fret, there **_**is**_** a sequel to this. As soon as I get the epilogue of this up, I'm going to post the sequel so you don't have to wait long.**


	18. Epilogue

_**Epilogue**_

_Beep…Beep…Beep…_

_Three beating hearts…_

_Three lives that would be forever scared…_

_All three victims of child abuse…_

Dougie smelled the medicine that was being pumped into his body before he opened his eyes. He blinked slowly, trying to figure out where he was. He reached up his hand, to feel his face, and his eyes widened when he saw that his arm was in a cast and that there was an IV in his arm. He lifted up his other arm, and seeing it was fine, he touched his face. His fingers bumped into something hard and he could tell that he had a cast over his nose. Reaching up even further, he felt a plaster on his forehead and a little swollen area around his eyes.

"Dougie!"

"Oh my god, you're ok!"

"How're you doing, buddy?"

"Please, stand back so he can get some air."

Dougie looked around him before pushing himself up into a sitting position, wincing when he felt a sharp sting of pain in his wrist. He rubbed it as he looked at his friends, who stared back at him. He could tell from the looks on their faces that they wanted to jump out and ask a lot of questions, but he had one big one to ask first.

"Where's Jazzie?" he demanded and then another thought struck him. "Where's my dad. Where's my mum?"

"Calm down, Dougie." Tom said as he laid a hand on Dougie's shoulder. Dougie flinched violently and Tom quickly withdrew his hand. "Your sister is fine, she had her wounds tended to quickly, because she's younger, she was released early. She's on her way over here."

"How long have I been here?" Dougie whispered in confusion. Danny hesitated before replying.

"About a week." He replied, swallowing thickly. "You were kind of touch and go at first…but you obviously pulled through. You have some cracked ribs along with a broken nose, a broken arm, and a hairline fracture of the skull. Oh and a broken nose and a black eye."

"It's a wonder you survived." Harry added and then went back to addressing his other questions. "Your dad is being held in jail while he awaits trial."

Dougie processed the news with a slow nod, but his head was swirling in overtime. '_Waiting for a trial? What does the judge want, one of us dead as proof? I don't ever want to see my dad's face again_.'

"Your mum's on the way over too." Danny added, breaking into Dougie's thoughts.

"Ok" Dougie nodded in reply as he propped up his pillows and looked back at his friends. "So…I'm guessing you're wondering why I didn't tell you guys."

"Well, actually, the first thing that I was wondering is why you didn't ask how Riley was." Tom replied truthfully. Dougie blinked blankly for a second and then his face filled with recognition and then fear. "Dude, she's fine. She just had a couple of bruises and a broken jaw. She was released earlier."

"Ok," Dougie nodded again and clucked his tongue. "So…what do you want to know?"

"What we want to know is why you didn't tell us when he first started to hit you?" Tom asked gently. Dougie gently lifted his arm and pointed at Danny.

"I already told him." He replied.

"You knew and you didn't tell us?" Harry demanded as Danny's blue eyes grew wide.

"I…well…uh…hey…whoa…whoa…wait!" Danny spluttered as he tried to defend himself. "I was _scared_ alright? I was scared to know what was going to happen if I _did_ tell anyone."

"There you go." Dougie cut in as Tom opened his mouth to say something. "That's exactly why I didn't tell any of you what was going on. I was scared to know what my dad would do if he found out that I told you guys. If he didn't kill me before…he could have if he found out that I told someone, which is why I made Danny _swear_ to never tell anyone."

"But don't you think that you and Jazzie could have avoided this whole thing if you just let him tell someone?" Harry asked, trying to understand the situation.

"I thought about that…but then the fear completely took me over and I was plagued with the idea that it was a very bad one. So I ended up just stewing in my fear, thinking that things would get way worse if I ever said anything." Dougie replied calmly.

"You're taking this…better than I thought." Tom said in confusion as he scratched his head. The doctor took this time to speak up.

"That's just the mindset that he's stuck in right now" the doctor said gently as he looked over some of the machines and wrote something down on his clipboard. "He, and Jazzie, _and Riley_ are most likely going to have to go through extensive amounts of therapy to get through this. It's not an easy thing to get over."

"Could you please talk like I'm here?" Dougie snapped in annoyance. The door to the room opened and Jazzie quietly stuck her head in the doorway. Dougie looked over at her and gave a small smile. She smiled in reply and rushed over to Dougie's bed and flung her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly.

"I found her out in the hallway; I think she's still sort of scared." Riley mumbled as she walked into the room behind Jazzie.

"How'd your jaw?" Tom asked, turning to her.

"Still hurts" she mumbled in reply, barely moving her jaw. "But it'll be better soon, I've felt worse." She looked over at Dougie. "How're you?"

"How do I look?" he asked in reply.

"Like shit" she replied bluntly.

"That's how I feel."

They all chuckled quietly and then a silence fell into the room. Riley cleared her throat and started to back out of the room. "Yeah, well, uh, your mum is coming to get you. The doctor says that you can be released today. And I have to go."

"Wait, do you have anyone that you can stay with until you get your trial?" Harry asked.

"Yeah," Riley nodded as she shoved her hands into her pockets. "Tom's family said that they'll take me in for a while." She shrugged again, "Just until I get on my feet, I don't want to be a burden."

"Trust me; you're not going to be." Tom replied, he sighed and gently patted Dougie's foot. "I've got to go too; I'll see you tomorrow, yeah?"

"Yeah" Dougie replied quietly. Tom smiled in reply and started to follow Riley out of the room, but Dougie called her name, causing her to turn around, her eyebrows raised questioningly. "Um…thanks."

"For what?" she asked in reply, looking completely confused.

"For trying to help me." He replied after a second. "I mean, you're the one that immediately knew what was going on…just because you were going through it too. But instead of trying to help yourself…you helped me. So thanks."

Riley blushed and looked away, an annoyed look on her face. "It's not like I would want you to die or anything. That would make me guilty and I don't like to feel guilty." Her eyes shifted back and forth and she looked even more embarrassed as she muttered a 'you're welcome' before leaving the hospital room with Tom.

"We've got to go too…but we'll see you later." Danny said as he motioned to himself and Harry, who nodded in agreement. He reached out a hand and then smiled when Dougie reached out his and the two high-fived.

"Why're you so quiet?" Dougie asked Jazzie when his friends left his room.

"I don't know, I guess I'm just scared." Jazzie whispered in reply and then turned to Dougie with wide eyes. "What if dad gets out of jail and comes back to hurt us again?"

"That's not going to happen."

"How do you know?"

"I just do"

"But _how_?"

"Jazzie!" Dougie snapped impatiently, making her stop talking. "Believe me, he's not going to come back and hurt you again. I promise that I'm going to be there to protect you. Always. I just proved that last night, didn't I?"

"Yes" Jazzie smiled and hugged her brother again. "Thank you."

"It's no problem." Dougie replied with a small laugh as he hugged her back. But he couldn't help but have a nagging feeling. Way back in the back of his head that she might be right. But he didn't want to focus on it now.

He had better things to worry about.

He had a life to live…

**THE END**

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**A/N: Thanks for reading guys. You're such great readers of this story. I never thought that it would be good when I first started it. But I'm glad that you enjoyed it. I made it a semi-long epilogue to reward myself for studying for a Physics exam all day. So, it's ended. But like I said, there's a sequel coming up. It's called '**_**Life's Getting Harder, Day By Day'**_**. You may recognize the title from the song 'Not Alone'. I thought that it was a good fit. So, again, thanks for reading and I hope you enjoy the sequel.**


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